The images of her friends solidified one by one, her own ghost moving through her to interact with each of them. Inuyasha was once again released from Goshinboku and handed Tessaiga, going through the motions of each time she'd helped him—each time he'd called out to her.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she was smiling, heart warming at how their fates were tangled in a web of friendship and trust. A red string appeared around her pinky finger, floating slowly toward the hanyou, but Kagome yanked it back before the other end could tie her to him. "That won't work."
The string darkened to indigo, attaching itself to Miroku's staff, and she snorted, eyes brightening even with the tears trailing down her cheeks. "Is this your way of rubbing in the life I'll never have?"
The jewel sneered, bobbing around her shoulders. You are loved by many, yet you choose to remain here.
She could sense its confusion, breathing deeply as she tugged on the string again, dislodging it from Miroku's rings. "There are many kinds of love. If you'd bothered sticking around long enough, you'd have figured that out."
Love is fruitless.
"Love is what keeps us going. What gives us power," she retorted, her smile returning as the string turned pink, now attached to hiraikotsu. "It gives us the will to go on, even when everything seems lost." She let the string linger, the ghost of Kirara bounding along it before it caught fire in a magnificent show of orange sparks.
She'd miss them, all of them, but she'd known this was a possibility from the start. And if she had to disappear in order for them to be safe, so be it.